


Slipping Away

by JacarandaBanyan



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Frustrated Fury, Iron Man Book Recs, M/M, OT3, Outsider Looking In on the Madness that is Captain America's Love Life, POV Outsider, Pre-OT3, SHIELD trying and failing to accomplish even basic goals, Smitten Steve, The Fury Frustration Fic No One Asked For, Torturing Fury, inappropriate texting, lots of kidnapping, texting under the table
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 14:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacarandaBanyan/pseuds/JacarandaBanyan
Summary: Despite Fury's best attempts to keep the newly defrosted Captain America firmly in SHIELD's hands, the man just seems to keep slipping away.





	Slipping Away

**Author's Note:**

> Just needed to get this out of my system. It's been floating around in my WIPs for much longer than it has any right to.

Captain America wasn’t even thawed for an entire week before he got kidnapped.

It shouldn’t have been possible. No one outside of SHIELD knew that the Captain was back, and only a few high-ranking agents knew where the Captain was at any given moment. Today had been the first day since his unfortunate trip to twenty-first century Times Square that the man had even been _outside_ , if you could even count the two-hundred square feet of roof space unoccupied by the helicarrier as _outside_.

Fury massaged his temples and signed the document Coulson held out for him with more force than strictly necessary. The higher-ups were not going to be happy that this newbie had somehow managed to neutralize the agents on the roof long enough to fly off into the sunset with one of SHIELD’s most important assets. All without a single death- that spoke to knowledge, practice, certainty. While the mystery man might be new to this particular game, he certainly wasn’t unprepared. Most troubling of all, he’d managed to whisk _Captain America_ off to God knows where. Fury had seen the punching bags that had borne the brunt of the Captain’s frustration. Anyone who could just carry him away like it was nothing almost certainly had tech SHIELD didn’t have, tech capable of holding out against his strength.

“I want every available agent on this! I want all available data on Iron Man pronto! Someone give me a status update!” _Damn it._ Usually shouting at junior agents curbed his skyrocketing blood pressure.

“We haven’t got any solid leads at the moment, Sir, but we’re working on it. Agent Hill is trying to track him by satellite.”

“Good. Get a team and start reviewing everything we know about this guy; I want him neutralized and ready for interrogation as soon as possible.”

“Er, Director, there’s something you should probably know.”

That sentence spoken in that timid tone of voice never boded well. “What is that?”

“Well, Agent Hill says that she was making progress too quickly. If Iron Man has the technology it appears he does, then it shouldn’t be this easy to track him.”

Jesus Christ. Was this a trap? A message? Negligence? There was no way to know. Iron Man was still a big unknown to SHIELD, despite his recent criminal activity in the Tri-State area. They’d been reluctant to get serious about tracking him down, since he’d been doing some of their work for them in the Middle East, but it was about time they started asking questions. Like how he got from Nowhere, Afghanistan to downtown New York faster than the military could. Or why exactly he was targeting weapons manufacturers and what he hoped to gain. Or how he got that fancy suit.

He turned back to his tablet screen and began reading through the report Agent Hill had just sent. He absently dismissed the nervous agent with a vague hand gesture. The junior agent nodded and fled before the director could start shouting again.

 

...

 

Several hours later, the Captain was located on Hart Island, tied up but unhurt. But of course this didn’t mean Fury’s troubles were over.

The real trouble had just begun.

“Did he take you anywhere else?” He paced as he interrogated the Captain while he waited for SHIELD medical to announce him unharmed. It was the perfect place for pacing. The room was long and rectangular, with an open aisle passing between two rows of beds. The aisle was easily thirty paces long, so he could get a groove going and retain it for a bit before he had to turn around and head back the other way.

“No Sir, just Hart Island.”

Fury made a note to have a team tear the island apart. There might be a lead in there somewhere, and heaven knows Iron Man just jumped fifteen places on SHIELD’s most wanted list.

“Did you see his face?”

“He kept his faceplate up the whole time.”

So no leads there. Not that he wouldn’t still assign a couple of agents to running the suit’s height and weight through every database SHIELD had, but it would have been nice to have something else to go on.

“What did he want?” The big one, the question circled in red, the one on everybody’s lips, the one that would direct the rest of the debrief. He reluctantly ground his pacing to a halt in front of the Captain’s bed. For the first time since his rescue, Fury really _looked_ at Captain Rogers.

He didn’t look like a man that had just been kidnapped and mistreated by a criminal. He looked… rather happy.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing?!”

The Captain shrugged and continued smiling. “I mean he didn’t want anything, Sir. He said he’d been a Captain America fan as a kid, and wanted to see if the rumors that I’d been found had any truth to them. He made sure I couldn’t escape, then just started asking me questions. Nothing confidential. Asked about the Howling Commandos, about my Ma, things like that. Asked how I was adjusting to the twenty-first century. Seemed put out that I didn’t have a cell phone yet.”

Fury sighed, thought about trying to continue with any of the questions on Coulson’s carefully prepared form, then decided against it. Whatever scenarios they’d been prepared for, _nothing_ wasn’t one of them.

“Did he ask anything about SHIELD?”

“Nothing confidential Sir, but he did ask if I had been given a run-down on what I missed, and gave me some book recommendations.”

Fury resisted the urge to put his fist through something important, but only just.

 

...

 

It wasn’t until he caught the Captain with a list of books labeled ‘Iron Man Recs’ that he fully comprehended how badly this whole thing was going to go. There were neat little check marks next to each completed title.

“Captain, do you find SHIELD’s provided materials inadequate?”

The man didn’t even look up from his reading to reply.

“Well Sir, I don’t know about inadequate, but there’s a whole lot that SHIELD didn’t cover when they got me caught up on what I missed. I’m sure they told me what they thought was important, but you just can’t fit 70 years in one debrief.”

“Is there any reason in particular why you felt the need to go to Iron Man for suggestions?”

The Captain carefully slid a bookmark into place and set his book down in his lap. “I didn’t ask him, he just gave it to me. He laughed when I told him SHIELD had caught me up. Said I shouldn’t just take your word for it.” His hands clenched around the book in his hand, and the binding gave just a bit.

“So you took his?”

“Well, I don’t know about you, Sir, but his argument makes sense.” Fury actually _felt_ his blood pressure creep upwards. “I’ve been watching the news, trying to get caught up. There’s a whole _hour_ or more of news every day, and that’s all stuff that just happened. The debrief SHIELD gave me on everything since 1945 was forty-five minutes long, and five minutes of that was spent looking for the right power point file.”

“What’s your point, Captain?” Fury growled stonily.

“Even with the debrief, I’ve got massive gaps in my knowledge. I want to change that as soon as possible. If I’m going to be working for SHIELD, I can’t have gaps like that.” He gave Fury a smile like a bruise. “Also, Iron Man was right. I’m halfway through the list, and so far I haven’t hit any of the topics SHIELD covered. Tell me, Sir,” he murmured, “how did the War end?”

Fury frowned. “I’m sure the defeat and occupation of Germany were included in your briefing, soldier, so I don’t believe that tone is appropriate-”

“How did the War in the _Pacific_ end, Sir? I _believe_ that was after Germany.”

Fury realized belatedly where this was going. He’d hoped this topic wouldn’t come up. “The US dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“The Bomb, you say. Last I remember, there wasn’t a bomb that could single-handedly bring about the end of the War. I’d know, I saw quite a few of them getting dropped.”

Fury ground his teeth. “The atom bomb was… different, from the ones you saw.”

In the right light, Fury thought, the way the Captain bit his lips might have looked like a snarl. “You don’t say? How, then, were they different?”

“The destructive power of the atom bomb was… enough to destroy cities.”

“Is that so? A weapon that could destroy whole cities? A weapon that could demoralize a nation by wiping out thousands of innocents and noncombatants? Now that you mention it, I do remember something like that.” The Captain finally looked away from his book to offer up a challenging glare. For all that they resembled clear blue skies in hue, the eyes Fury found himself staring into were downright stormy. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Sir, but when I drove that plane into the Atlantic, wasn’t I trying to stop the exact same thing from happening to New York?”

“It was necessary, Soldier. The Pacific Theater had already been won, but the Japanese wouldn’t surrender! Hundreds were dying in an unnecessarily drawn-out hell on earth. Something, _anything_ that brought it to an end as soon as possible was worth it.”

The Captain nodded, but it wasn’t quite an agreement. “And this weapon, I come to find out, has been shaping international politics ever since. This weapon and it’s power have fueled decades of proxy wars and power struggles between those nations that have it, power struggles that have rippled across the globe until nowhere is left unaffected. And somehow, it just _slipped your mind_ to mention it in my briefing.”

He rose from his chair, carefully gathered his books, and tucked the little piece of paper labeled ‘Iron Man Recs’ inside the book at the top of the stack before glaring at Fury with unadulterated recalcitrance. Fury briefly wondered if he could somehow spin that as insubordination, but abandoned the thought immediately. Even if he could somehow convince someone that Captain America was anything less than the perfect soldier, the man would just go behind Fury’s back to finish out that list.

So _this_ was Iron Man’s game; to prey upon the Captain’s disorientation at being flung into the future to plant the seeds of doubt and distrust in SHIELD. Then, once he’d gotten a foothold, he’d corrupt him, manipulate him, use him. For what, Fury didn’t know yet, but he would soon. So far, he seemed to focus on terrorist groups and dirty-dealing weapons suppliers. He’d have one of the agents look into it.

SHIELD _couldn’t_ lose Captain America. He was too valuable an asset.   


…

 

“Captain, you and I need to have a chat.”

The Captain slowly put down his book (Waiting Til The Midnight Hour, another title from Iron Man’s list) and looked up as Fury strode into the room. “About what, Sir?”

“This whole business with Iron Man!”

The Captain sat up a little straighter. “What about him, Sir?”

“Captain, do you have any idea how many times you have been kidnapped by Iron Man in the past month?”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “I know, Sir. I was there.”

“Your sass is registered but unwanted, Captain. This is getting to be a problem. Every time he flies away with you, there are _consequences_ ! Aside from the wasted hours we have to spend tracking you down, there’s also the risk that Iron Man, who I think you need to be reminded is a _criminal_ , will get some piece of information out of you that you did not intend to give. This man is dangerous, Captain- he’s attacking every big weapons dealer in the country, and not a single one of them has managed to catch him. The only company that’s remained mostly unharmed is Stark Industries, and I’d be willing to bet that that’s only because Tony Stark has announced that he’s not going to be making any weapons for much longer.

“The bottom line is that you’ve got to stop letting him kidnap you. Don’t pretend that I don’t know you’re going easy on him, soldier.”

The Captain opened his mouth, and Fury braced himself for the pushback. He’d been watching, these past few weeks. The man was letting himself be kidnapped. There was no other explanation for why his fighting skills nosedived so obviously when Iron Man swooped in, or for why he never made any serious effort to get away. Oh, sure, sometimes he ‘escaped’ back to SHIELD, but when an agent, usually Black Widow or Hawkeye, had to go and get him, they found that he didn’t appear to be trying too hard to escape. Fury had a sneaking suspicion that those escapes weren’t really escapes, either.

Moreover, these kidnappings never resulted in any injuries for the Captain, not even rope burn. In fact, once he’d even returned to SHIELD having received medical care for a cut he’s sustained on the battlefield.

Perhaps most obviously of all, the Captain seemed happy after being kidnapped. At this point, it was an open secret that Captain America had a certain rapport with Iron Man. Despite everything, they seemed to have formed a tentative friendship.

It wasn’t that Fury wanted to crush this budding bromance, it was just that he had been in this business long enough to have a healthy paranoia regarding criminals. A paranoia the Captain just hadn’t developed yet.

Obviously, the Captain would be upset. Fury would bluster, let him think he was controlling the argument, then agree to a compromise of some sort. It was a bad idea to remove the Captain from Iron Man entirely; at this point, the Captain was his only source of information on the man, and Fury was loathe to give up a perfectly good source of information. This new rule would not only save SHIELD hundreds of man hours hunting down Captain America when he wasn’t even in danger, but the Captain was sure to tell Iron Man about it. No need to let the criminal know that Fury was trying to get a read on him using the Captain by purposefully letting these encounters continue. In fact, by going against Fury and, indirectly, SHIELD, the Captain would prove to Iron Man that he could be trusted, making it just that much more likely that the villain would spill something big around him. And it was much safer to boot. Captain America was much more durable than the average SHIELD agent.

Obviously, this little ruse worked both ways. Iron Man was surely already subtly mining his willing captive for information on SHIELD. Whether the Captain realized it or not, he would inevitably give something away. But that too had a solution. If he took the Captain off the Iron Man case, then he’d have no legitimate reason to give him information regarding SHIELD’s search for Iron Man. That would be the compromise that sealed the deal- Fury would turn a blind eye to the Captain’s noble desire to understand this criminal to the point of allowing himself to be kidnapped in exchange for his renunciation of the case. There was plenty of other high-level work for him to do instead in areas where he was needed just as badly.

If Iron Man couldn’t get the information he wanted from the Captain, then either he’d drop him, in which case Fury might be able to put him back on the case, or he’d keep trying, which would just create more opportunities for him to let something slip in front of the Captain.

However, the Captain surprised him. After a few seconds soundlessly working his mouth, he’d nodded. “Agreed, Sir. No letting Iron Man kidnap me.”

What? No, that wasn’t how this was supposed to go! But the Captain was already reopening his book, signalling the end of the conversation. “Have you read this one, Sir? Iron Man recommended it to me. Said I missed quite a bit of the equal rights movements, and should catch up as quickly as I can. It’s fascinating stuff. I wonder what Gabe would’a thought of it… ”

Fury felt his eye twitch.

He didn’t believe the Captain would stay away from Iron Man for a minute.

Fury briefly considered forbidding Steve to leave SHIELD headquarters without permission, but discarded the idea. His influence over the Captain might be eroding, but it would disappear if he tried to force the Captain to do something he didn’t want to do.

 

...

 

There was something wrong with this picture.

Normally, Clint could be counted on to completely ignore every word that came out of his superior’s mouths during a debrief in favor of just taking his cues from Coulson. The other agents would be either paying attention or pretending to, so Clint would be the one distracting factor in the room, the one thing that wasn’t like the others. Fury had even taken to seating Clint next to the Captain, the paragon of correct debriefing protocol, just to balance things out. The Captain’s over-attentiveness was less unnerving when he was being serious for two.

But for some reason, this little trick wasn’t working today.

It took Fury a few minutes to put his finger on it, not because it was something subtle or small, but because his concept of how the world worked shied away from what it was seeing. He kept trying to figure out how Clint was messing up the perfect fidget balance, which was understandable, since things like this were generally Clint’s fault. Only once he had determined that Clint wasn’t fidgeting any more than normal did he spot the problem.

The Captain wasn’t paying attention.

He was tapping his fingers, staring into space with his head inclined slightly downward and, worst of all, failing to respond to any of the information presented.

The thought of Living Epitome of Correct Conduct Captain America failing to pay attention to a very important debrief couldn’t seem to solidify in Fury’s brain. The very idea of it felt _wrong_ . Not bad, per se, though it was quickly becoming annoying, but almost _incorrect._ Like the universe had somehow messed up Captain America’s characterization. This- what _was_ the Captain doing, anyway?

Fury waited until one of the more verbose agents began reviewing redundant information, then used the opportunity to redirect his attention to the Captain. Let’s see, twitching fingers, staring down, failing to respond to the presentations… Good Lord, was he texting under the table? Captain America, stereotypical old-fashioned technophobe, texting?

Sure enough, now that he knew what to look for, he could just make out the glow of the screen lighting up the captain’s face.

Just who was the Captain- no, _Steve_ , if he was going to do something as improper and _human_ as text under the table, then he was going to call him by his name- ignoring this very important debrief to text?

Fury couldn’t see from here, but if that stopped him then his years of dedication to the spying business had been well and truly wasted.

The seating chart for these little debriefs were things of true, underappreciated beauty that Fury slaved away over, sometimes for hours on end, so that they’d be just right. He even made back-up charts in case someone got sick or mauled by a space alien and couldn’t attend. Junior agents attributed his uncanny ability to predict when and where trouble would start at debriefs that no one had wanted to attend to some sort of mystical power. There was even some speculation that he had traded the eye hidden by the patch for the ability to see into the future. The truth was simply that he had managed to exert a certain level of control over the situation before the debrief even began. And with agents like Clint Barton, as much control as possible was needed. So of course Fury hadn’t just stuck him between any two agents off the top of his head. On one side, there was Captain America, Bastion of Professionalism, who could be trusted not to encourage him, and on the other side was Phil Coulson.

He had not foreseen this particular scenario when he had drawn up the seating chart such that Coulson just so happened to be perfectly positioned to read Steve’s texts over his shoulder. Originally, giving Coulson endless opportunities to casually spy on Captain America had been something of an unofficial gift.

He casually rested one hand on the table, fingers splayed so that his index finger was pointed right at Clint. Several seconds later, Coulson pulled a new sheet of paper from within the rather daunting stack near his elbow and placed it next to his current note sheet.

This new note sheet appeared on the surface to be some sort of generic paperwork form, and in a way it was. It was a form that Fury and Coulson had developed for situations like these, where Clint was up to something and they wanted to know what. In Clint’s defense, it had originally been useable for any agent who might have been up to something, but over the years it had been tailored specifically to Clint. Today would be the first time in years that Fury had called on him to use it for anyone else.

Coulson rested the tip of his pencil against the paper to signal that he was ready for instructions.

Fury shifted slightly in his seat so that his eye patch was pointed at Steve.

Coulson’s face didn’t _change_ , per se, but it was obvious to Fury that he was caught off-guard. Still, he was too well-trained to question an order. His note-taking shifted seamlessly from real paperwork to the fake paperwork, with no one the wiser.

Now all he had to do was wait.

 

…

 

Fury looked up from Coulson’s report, drug his hands down his face, then looked back down to make sure he hadn’t read it wrong. He briefly considered asking Coulson if he was sure, but he’s too self-aware to not see that he’s just grasping at straws. Coulson wasn’t wrong.

Steve had been texting Iron Man.

Of all the idiotic, naive, ludicrous things he could have done, of course he had to go and choose the one most likely to end badly for everyone.

How had he even gotten a phone? He rarely if ever left the SHIELD base for anything other than missions and emergency response, so when could he have gone and bought one? SHIELD tracked all of his mail, so they knew he couldn’t have had it delivered. Furthermore, _why_ did he have a phone? SHIELD had tried to give him one early on, but he’d turned it down. The tiny keyboard frustrated him, the appeal of the games the junior agents had installed was lost on him, and he couldn’t figure out how to use Google effectively.

“Well, Sir, what do you think?” Coulson asked. “The content of the texts seemed harmless enough.”

Fury valiantly fought down the urge to set fire to the carefully-transcribed texts.

“I disagree.” He snapped. “Sure, the Captain didn’t give away SHIELD secrets or congratulate him on his latest round of warehouse-exploding, but he sure wasn’t acting all that professional either.”

“Sir, an agent failing to pay attention during a debrief isn’t exactly cause for alarm. If it was, Clint wouldn’t have lasted a week.”

“This isn’t just an agent screwing around and wasting my time- by the way, tell Barton that I don’t appreciate the new ‘additions’ to the shooting range, they are juvenile and beneath him. This, Coulson, is an agent fraternizing with the enemy. Look at how friendly they sound! Who knows what Iron Man is trying to accomplish with this!”

Coulson paused just a little bit longer than he should have before replying.

“Sir, have you considered looking into Iron Man again? Perhaps he could be… of use.” He straightened his posture a bit. “I looked through his file this morning, and I spotted something surprising. Did you know that Iron Man doesn’t have a single casualty to his name? Not one. We don’t know yet why he’s attacking abandoned warehouses and hacking companies, or why he likes to kidnap the Captain for an afternoon or so, but we do know that he’s made an effort not to let innocent bystanders get hurt.”

Fury glared. It was an impressive glare. He’d spent more time that strictly necessary practicing that glare in the mirror, from multiple angles and with different lightings. It was completely unfair that it didn’t work on Coulson.

“What possible _noble intentions_ would lead him to kidnap Captain America, hm?”

Coulson smiled. “I don’t know about noble intentions, but we’ve always gotten the Captain back unhurt. In fact, he looked rather happy the last couple of times. It’s odd to say, Sir, but I think these little… outings are good for him.”

Fury’s eyes widened. “Please tell me you’re not allowing your hero-worship to cloud your judgement to the point where you just agree with everything the man says, agent.”

“Of course not.”

“Good.” Fury snatched the notes off his desk and shoved them into his overcoat pocket with more force than strictly necessary. “I need to go speak to Captain Rogers. I want to know how, when, where, and why he got a phone without letting anyone at SHIELD know and why he’s decided to be so reckless as to use that phone to text a known criminal.”

“Good luck with that Sir.”

 

…

 

Steve is texting when Fury finds him, and isn’t that just the cherry on top.

“Captain, I have reason to believe you have been fraternizing with the enemy.”

The man didn’t even have the decency to be ashamed.

“If you mean I’ve been talking with Iron Man, Sir, then yes, I have been. I got a phone and everything just so we could keep in touch.”

Fury gnashed his teeth. “Captain-”

“In fact,” Steve interrupted as he finally turned off that god-forsaken phone, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Iron Man.”

Fury let a little annoyance color his glare. Not too much, as that would mess up his perfect balance of disgruntlement and vexation and drown out the touch of inquiet that really rounded out the whole look, but enough to be noticeable. “So have I.”

Steve offered him a bright smile. “Good. Listen, I’ve been researching Iron Man a bit, and I think I see a pattern here.” He stood and riffled through several papers stacked neatly on his desk. “I made a list of all of the warehouses he’s attacked, and I looked into them. Well, I didn’t really make the list, Agent Hill just so happened to have one and gave me a copy. Anyway, turns out, all of these warehouses had two things in common. One, they all belonged to weapons companies. Two, in the weeks, sometimes years leading up to Iron Man’s attack, they had a history either of being robbed or of stock discrepancies. None of these robberies were ever looked into, and there was never any investigation of the stock discrepancies, no matter how large. That seemed pretty strange to me.”

He reached into a half-open drawer and pulled out a world map. Little highlighter circles dotted the paper like spilled sprinkles.

“So then I looked into all the known instances of Iron Man operating outside of the States. Once again, I got the list from one of the SHIELD agents investigating Iron Man. I was able to link each site back to one or more of those warehouses.”

He half folded the map, thought better of it, and thrust it down on top of one of the perfect pillars of paper. A single sheet slid out of place. Steve didn’t notice. He was too busy gesturing animatedly at the map.

“All of those sites were areas of high-level conflict and civil unrest, mostly civil war or guerrilla threats. Sir, I think the companies that owned those warehouses were selling under the table. SHIELD operatives in West Africa just last week were trying to find out where the insurgents were getting their weapons. That made me think of something you said about Stark Industries the other day. You said that they are the only ones not getting hit all that badly. I looked them up, and the one thing that sets them apart from these other companies is that Tony Stark recently began forcibly purging his company of this sort of thing. In the past few months he’s _really_ been cracking down. It’s not enough for him to stop making weapons, he’s getting rid of every weapon he ever _made_. When I looked at the SI hits Iron Man made, most of them were from the first month of the new policies, back when SI was still doing bad business. I think this is our answer. Iron Man has been trying to stop dirty weapons dealing.”

He finally paused to take a breath, and stared excitedly at Fury. Fury just raised an eyebrow.

“Does this research of yours have anything to do with why you were texting Iron Man during the debrief earlier today? Or with the little kidnapping-quality time _chats_ we talked about?”

It wasn’t that he was mad about the continued contact- that had been his original goal when he’d first approached the Captain about the whole thing. As soon as he’d heard the Captain’s answer, he’d expected to have this confrontation. So the plan to use Steve to get info on Iron Man when his best SHIELD analysts couldn’t had been a bust. Sometimes, that was how it all worked out. At least that failure had a silver lining; Iron Man wouldn’t be able to set Steve against SHIELD for his own purposes without Steve himself breaking his word, something Fury was convinced the man wouldn’t do. He’d expected lingering conversations after a battle (which could be taped), letters (that could be intercepted), or something else that didn’t involve them meeting face to face. But if the two of them were still meeting, then who knows what sensitive information Iron Man had managed to glean from Steve.

Steve blushed a little. “I honestly think you have him pegged wrong, Director. If he wanted something from me, he’d have taken it by now. He’s been nothing but civil.”

Fury considered circling back to the texting, but decided to press the issue. “I thought we talked about these kidnappings, Captain. We agreed, you wouldn’t let yourself be whisked away anymore. You and I both know you’re better than that.”

Steve smiled, and his blush deepened. “I heard you loud and clear Sir. No more letting him kidnap me.” Fury opened his mouth, but Steve cut him off. “So instead I sat on top of Stark Tower until he showed up.”

Fury’s mouth aborted its previous mission in favor of gaping. By this point, the Captain looked like he had roses blooming right under the skin of his cheeks.

“He’s been spotted in that area a lot, and Stark Tower is the tallest thing in the area, so I figured if I hung out there, he’d notice and come pick me up. I told him about our conversation, and he agreed that kidnapping wasn’t the classiest way in the world to contact me. So we agreed on regular meeting times instead, and he gave me a phone so I could reach him if there was a last-minute change of plan. He showed me how to work it and everything.”

Fury’s mouth floundered like a beached fish for a few heartbeats before blurting out the least important of observations. “You had a whole team of SHIELD agents work with you for hours, and by the end of that you still couldn’t even use the camera!”

Steve’s cheeks achieved hot-coal levels of flush. “Iron Man is a very good teacher.”

Fury pressed the heels of his palms into his forehead, as if he could kneed that last sentence out of his brain. Apparently, the Captain America- Iron Man situation was worse than he’d thought.

“Captain, I think we both knew what I meant when we had that conversation. Your research may have merit, but I don’t appreciate how you’ve let your desire to vindicate this criminal drive that research. Yes, he is a criminal, blowing up private property _is_ illegal, even if you have cause to claim it was morally right. However, I think all that could be swept under the rug, so to speak, if we could rein the man in a bit.”

Steve’s smile brightened, then wilted a little bit when he realized that by ‘rein the man in’ Fury didn’t mean ‘employ him and clear his name of all past wrongdoing.’

“Are you trying to get to him through me, Sir?”

“If by ‘get to him’ you mean establish SHIELD contact, then you bet I am! Iron Man is a loose canon. If what you say is to be believed, then he’s a loose canon with morals, but a loose canon nonetheless. There are better ways to stop weapons dealing than explosions, believe it or not Captain.”

Steve looked unimpressed. “SHIELD used explosions to get with the dealer in Morocco.”

Fury was liking this newer, more informed Captain less and less with each argument. Damn Iron Man for making Steve think he had to question _everything_.

“That’s beside the point. In that particular case, explosions were the best answer. That may not be the case here. Besides, we could use some of that tech Iron Man’s been flaunting.”

“So you want his tech.”

“Everyone wants his tech. The only person whose tech is more in demand is Tony Stark himself, and no one’s had any luck with him since the whole Afghanistan debacle. Not that SHIELD isn’t first in line to get the new StarkPhone, mind you.” Steve’s eyes widen a bit, but not enough to tell Fury anything. He’d have to look into that later. For now, he soldiered on. “I’m not asking you to do anything bad. I’m just saying that it would be better for everyone if your friend wasn’t so adamant about the whole lone wolf thing.

“And he doesn’t have much time to change his mind. The complaints have been relatively minor so far, but pretty soon those companies he’s attacking are going to make their move. They’ve gotta make sure their asses are covered regarding the illicit deals, but once they’re in the clear, they’re going to try and shut him down. Maybe they’ll succeed, probably they won’t, based on what I’ve seen. But still, it’s something to think about, Captain. And another thing-”

Whatever he had been about to add was cut off by the arrival of a junior agent carrying a truly massive bouquet of red and yellow roses. At first glance, it looked like a vase had sprouted legs. It took a few seconds of searching to find the agent’s face behind the exuberant floral display.

“I have these for Captain America. Delivery man just brought ‘em.” The agent huffed.

Steve flew across the room to accept the flowers. The flowers that were so obviously Iron Man’s colors it was almost painful. They even came with a little card shaped like Iron Man’s helmet and another book.

Fury dismissed the agent absentmindedly. Most of his attention was focused on staring at Steve as he buried his face in the flowers, breathed deeply, then exhaled in contentment before snatching up the card. He cleared his throat pointedly. Steve startled, realizing Fury was still there, and reluctantly put both the flowers and the card down.

“Would you like to continue this conversation some other time, Captain?”

“If that’s okay, Sir.” Steve flipped the book over and began to read the back cover. It looked like the Poisonwood Bible, if Fury wasn’t mistaken. Guess Iron Man had moved on from history books to novels.

“Well, whenever you’re ready to discuss your willful insubordination, I’ll be waiting.”

That didn’t seem to phase the Captain as much as it really should have.

 

…

 

Iron Man was nothing if not a flashy bastard, so Fury wasn’t all that surprised when the giant bouquets kept coming. The man had the nerve to swoop down right in front of SHIELD headquarters like he didn’t trigger a thousand alarms every time he did it. At this rate his agents would grow _complacent_ , they were getting so used to hearing alarms.

The first time he’d tried to stop Steve from rushing out to greet him. Fat lot of good that had done him.

“He’s here to see me, Sir. I told him to come pick me up.”

“Are you insane, Rogers? This is supposed to be a secure facility. Iron Man shouldn’t be within a stone’s throw of this place, let alone here with permission.”

The Captain just kept walking, forcing Fury to follow him.

“I thought you wanted me to quit the secret rendezvous, Sir. Well, here I am, doing everything above board and in broad daylight. Iron Man hasn’t done anything wrong, so why are we still doing this?”

He voice hardened towards the end. Fury ignored it.

“Done no wrong, you say? What about those warehouses blown to smithereens? What about those corporate secrets released just last week? What about all those weapons that suit’s equipped with? Seems to me a Good Samaritan doesn’t need quite so much firepower.”

“No. But a superhero might.”

Fury stumbled.

“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, Captain! This man is clearly not a hero, he’s at best a dangerous vigilante and at worst a super _villain_. I know you think there’s a method to his madness, but the truth is that he’d been unwilling to work with the authorities, reckless, violent, and completely out of control. Which is exactly why you should quit this- this whatever it is you have going with him.”

“A date, Sir.”

“What?”

“The word you’re looking for is ‘date.’” He blushed. “We’ve been dancing around it for a bit now, but he finally asked me out a few nights ago.

“You know, Sir, I’ve never gotten to simply date someone. Just enjoy being in love. I never got to dance with Peggy properly, and I always had to keep what I had with Bucky under wraps. But Iron Man told me that it’s not like that anymore. I know you think I’m just being naive, but Iron Man really has been nothing but good to me. I think I’m falling in love with him, Sir.”

That was new information to Fury. As far as he knew, Barnes had been nothing more than a dear friend. Either the Captain had been very subtle, or someone had deliberately kept that information from becoming general knowledge. He side eyed Steve; he was pretty sure he could guess which one it was.

Steve took advantage of his momentary surprise to push past him and out the door to greet Iron Man and accept the flowers and book the man had brought. The look on his face was relaxed and open and adoring, and Fury realized that he’d never seen the Captain look happy in such an uncomplicated way before.

After that, Fury just stopped trying. He must really be getting soft.

Who knows? Maybe the Captain is a better judge of character than Fury originally took him for. Maybe Iron Man really was a misunderstood hero. Maybe there was something to Coulson’s idea of recruiting Iron Man. It would certainly go a long ways towards regaining some of the control they’d lost regarding Steve.

 

…

 

Fury reaches out to Iron Man. He gets a virus for his troubles.

 

…

 

Fury’s prediction was proved right a few weeks later when the enemy-of-SHIELD-approaching alarm sounded yet again. Thinking it was just Iron Man again, he didn’t exactly hop to; he was in the middle of an important meeting with Agent Romanoff. It was only when the alarm continued to blare that he realized something was actually wrong this time. Swearing, he leapt to his feet and went to go see what was going on.

And walked into a battlefield.

A quick scan told him there were three sides: SHIELD operatives, who were trying to take down a man in tactical gear with a metal arm, the man in the tactical gear, who appeared to be trying to kidnap Steve, and Steve, who was trying to protect the man, who was clearly some sort of assassin, from SHIELD. Bullets were flying and his agents weren’t making it easy, but the man with the metal arm was slowly but surely dragging the Captain toward the exit. Fury shouted a warning, and the doors began to auto lock.

A bullet hit the man’s goggles, shattering them. The man yanked them off and discarded them carelessly.

Fury never thought he’d find a reason to curse the pervasive Captain America worship in SHIELD’s ranks, but that day had come. Now that the man’s face wasn’t covered by the goggles, it was obvious that he was the famous Bucky Barnes. Everyone except the man himself screeched to a halt in horror. Steve looked like God himself had hit him over the head with a brick.

It was all the man needed to escape. He punched through the supposedly bulletproof windows behind him with that fancy arm of his and dragged the Captain through them. By the time everyone had recovered, the two of them had disappeared into the city.

…

 

Two days later he received a text from Iron Man. It was a selfie of Steve and him sitting at a table eating pancakes. It was unclear how Iron Man was eating through his helmet, which set of alarms in Fury’s mind. Could Steve have seen Iron Man’s face and not told anyone? That sounded… just like the Captain. Damn it.

A few minutes later he heard from the Captain himself. _I’m safe and on my way back to SHIELD. Talked to Bucky. He won’t kidnap me again. Will talk soon._ Of course it was _Bucky_ the man was worried about.

It quickly became clear that Steve wasn’t exactly rushing back. Every hour on the hour he received a picture from Iron Man. Him and Steve making purple pancakes. Steve asleep on an extremely ugly couch with a book open over his face. Bucky Barnes, still in full tactical gear, wearing a poorly made daisy crown.

He had the phone Iron Man texted destroyed once Steve finally wandered back to SHIELD, of course. It clearly wasn’t secure anymore, and knowing Iron Man’s abilities with tech, probably dangerous to keep.

No word on the Winter Soldier. Steve was less than unhelpful and completely unrepentant about it. He sets some agents to the task of hunting the man down based on the photos Iron Man sent, but he doesn’t hold out hope.

 

…

 

“Nick Fury, everyone’s favorite super-spy, I knew you still loved me! So, what seems to be the problem today? Did a newbie forget to plug something in? Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

“Stark, if you don’t shut up and start working, I will have Natasha poison all of the coffee in this building.”

“Aw, but then who would do that super-secret project of yours? I know you have one for me, you never let me go anywhere fun otherwise.”

Fury held back his snarl, reconsidered how deserving Stark was of his restraint, then went ahead and snarled at him. “Stark, you’re not allowed to go anywhere ‘fun’ because previous experience has taught everyone that letting you near important information and technology is like releasing a five year old into a room full of candy placed exactly at eye level. No matter what we tell you, no matter how serious the occasion, no matter how many times you’ve been warned, you never fail to cause problems for everybody else. Even when we tell you that you’re only a consultant, you still refuse to even pretend to act like you care. Now,” he said as he signalled the agents surrounding Stark to follow them into the office, “I have taken precautions to make sure you don’t go wandering off, or looking at things you shouldn’t. You will stay with me for the entirety of your time here. Have I made myself clear?”

Stark eyed the agents surrounding him, even turning around to see the ones behind him. Then, he started laughing. One of the agents shifted uncomfortably.

“Okay, okay, Fury, you can have your cute little security detail if it makes you feel better. Now, where’s that super-special project of yours?”

Fury sighed. “I want you to take a look at this video footage.”

He tapped the little white arrow in the bottom corner of the screen and motioned for the agents in front of Stark to move to the side so that his view would be unobstructed. Fury himself stood where he could easily pretend not to be watching Stark’s reactions. Not that it mattered, Stark probably knew he was being observed.

On the screen, Iron Man soared into view. Stark’s lips quirked up. “I should have guessed. You guys have been trying to deal with him for what, six months now? Actually, I think I’m a little insulted that you didn’t come to me earlier. This is clearly my area of expertise, and you clearly can’t handle this guy’s tech.” A few of the agents bristled, but no one said anything.

Iron Man easily tossed a guard into a pile of trash beside a grainy warehouse door. The agent slumped, but was clearly still alive. He tried to stumble backwards when Iron Man approached him, but he ran into a wall. He was clearly terrified. However, the man in the suit just slung the guard over his shoulder and paced over to a tree and dumped him at the base. Then, he tied the guard in place with some sort of high-strength wire. It was hard to tell exactly what it was- the camera was too far away. Iron Man turned away from the wheezing guard to return to the warehouse door and slip inside. For several minutes, nothing happened. Then, Iron Man exited through the same door, now with two other guards thrown over his shoulder and a tablet clipped to his thigh. He bound the second two guards with the same wire he’d used on the first, then rigged that wire to the suit and took off. Several seconds later, the warehouse exploded like a Roman Candle and Iron Man shot out into the sky, guards in tow.

“That is the earliest footage we have of Iron Man. We have earlier reports, of course, but that’s the first _video_. I trust you know by now what I want from you.”

Stark smirked. “You want me to make you Iron Man.” He paused. “What makes you think I’ll do it?”

“I know you, Stark. You can’t walk away from a challenge like this.”

Stark pretended to think about it. “Hmmm… no.”

That wasn’t right. Since when had Stark ever said no? If Stark said no, then he didn’t get any new tech, he didn’t get to not-so-covertly spy on Stark, and Stark got to waltz out of here with information he hadn’t had when he’d come in. Oh no, Fury wasn’t completely stupid. He knew that Stark had already hacked SHIELD’s systems and was using that blasted AI of his to copy sensitive documents as they spoke. Fury had taken the liberty of removing several computers, routers, and hard drives from the premises specifically to keep them unhacked.

“What do you mean, no?”

“Exactly that- no. I told you before, I don’t make weapons anymore. Was that all you wanted? Color me unimpressed, I would’ve thought you’d want to use my genius for something cool, like building you a robot, which I won’t do either, my robots are mine, or building you a super energy source so you can power all of your secret spy stations while keeping them off the grid, or something.”

And just like that, Whirlwind Stark swept out of Fury’s office, raining scathing remarks and jokes as it passed. By the time the agents realized what had happened, he was already out the door and on his way, casually yelling his contact information over his shoulder.

Fury sighed, then dismissed the agents. That was one upside to the failure of this particular plan. All of the agents had been newbies getting their first dose of Stark. They had a lot to learn from the experience. You didn’t get Coulson-level agents without training.

There was another upside, too. Stark turning down a challenge was out of character. There was a chance Stark was going straight home to build this thing alone in his lab. Somehow, though, he didn’t think that was the case. If Stark had really wanted to build this thing, he’d have done it already.

No, the real take-away from this was that Stark had willing come to SHIELD headquarters, most likely already knowing what Fury would ask. He must have wanted information, information he needed to hack SHIELD to get. Coulson could look over the system, see what it was that had been looked at, find out what Stark wanted.

Fury had some theories on what Stark was after. It would all depend on what he’d targeted. If he targeted the Captain’s files, then he was probably looking for Captain America. If he targeted the Iron Man files, then he was either lying about his willingness to build Iron Man, or he needed to be knocked up a couple of places on the Iron Man Suspect List. (Admittedly, it was a rather long list.)

 

...

 

"You're sure about this, Agent?"

"I'm afraid so."

“And you’re sure this is the one Stark stole?”

“He stole several files, but this was the one he targeted first.”

Fury fanned the pictures out on the desk. The story they told, in combination with the security footage Coulson had swiped, was chilling. Agent Coulson was right- there really was no other plausible explanation.

Someone was looking for Captain America, but it wasn’t Stark.

The crisp security footage in front of him showed several figures in full-body uniforms huddled around a mostly-complete device on a table. A needle mounted near the center of the machine was pointing at a large bottle filled with some sort of liquid on the far end of the table. The placement of the bottle changed, and the orientation of the needle followed it. Whatever they were building, it was meant to respond to that particular liquid, whatever it was.

“I’ve already looked into it Sir,” Coulson said. “It appears to be the bottles that went missing from shipment 65479 just after Erskine’s death. The ones containing the imperfect and diluted versions of the serum the Captain received. They were never recovered.”

He felt a headache coming on. “Why wasn’t I notified about this earlier?”

“There was a memo on your desk for you to read after Stark left. Only the agent who retrieved the footage two days ago and a few of their colleagues have seen it.”

“Then how the hell did Stark know about it already?”

“We don’t know, nor do we know why he was after this particular file.”

“Was there anything else in the file?”

“No.”

Fury sighed. "Go find the Captain. He needs to hear about this."

The video continued, showing several scientists adjusting the dials on the side of the machine with more care than was probably strictly necessary, like they were stroking a snake. Then, a second, different experiment, this time with two bottles, one about the size of a blender, the other closer to the size of a coffee mug. The substance in the smaller bottle looked darker, thicker, more highly concentrated. The needle wavered, twitched toward the larger bottle, then swung back and locked on the smaller bottle.

So they were looking for a particular concentration of the Serum, then.

Not a whole lot of ambiguity on the purpose of that Serum-compass. Clearly the Captain was in danger.

**_BANG!_ **

The doors to the office swung open with enough force to dent the wall. Coulson rushed through the doors and slammed a piece of paper onto Fury's desk.

"The Captain is not in his quarters.” He paused, catching his breath, then pushed the piece of paper into Fury’s hand. “I found this on his bed."

_Went to meet Iron Man. You said last time we talked that you wanted to know when I was with him. Will be gone for a few days. Don't worry. Steve._

Fury slowly placed the note on the side of his desk before turning his attention back to Coulson.

“I want to know the names of everyone who so much as caught a glimpse of that file. I don’t like the idea that Stark knew about this before I did, I don’t like that he stole a file containing more or less a tutorial on how to track down the Captain, and for that matter I don’t like not knowing where the Captain is. I am not a happy man, Agent. Now you are going to go and tell your little agents exactly why I am not happy, and they are going to do something about it. I don’t really care what. Find the Captain, find out who those scientists are working for and what they want, get me something to work with. And get a team to try and track down Iron Man. The Captain is presumably with him, and the timing of this little rendezvous is a little too suspicious for my tastes.”

So now two people were looking for Captain America. Whoever had hired those scientists was trying to track his blood, and after that little show of his, Tony Stark undoubtedly knew everything.

 

…

 

“Sir, we have a situation. Iron Man has been spotted.”

“Good, prepare a team to go intercept him. I want the Captain back here in the next half hour. We have reason to believe he’s being tracked by someone less benign than Iron Man.”

“I… don’t think that’s possible, Sir.”

Fury didn’t even glance up from his work to glare at the nervous agent. “Why not? I promise you, I’ve had to deal with enough paperwork regarding Natasha’s utter lack of regard for traffic regulations to know that speed won’t be a problem.”

“Well Sir, we found Iron Man, but he’s not in the US.”

Fury whirled sharply. “What do you mean, not in the US? Where was he?”

“Tahiti, Sir.”

“How reliable is this intel?” He demands.

The agent held up a phone. Fury snatched it and opened it to see a long series of text messages from Iron Man.

_Hey Fury, sorry to snatch your cutie pie captain, but I was on a schedule._

_And also I didn’t want to talk to you._

_But rest assured, Steve’s safe with me._

_I’ll even have him bring you back a souvenir._

After that it was just a string of pictures of Steve hanging out on an idyllic beach. The Winter Soldier was in a couple of them, but Iron Man wasn’t taking selfies this time.

 _Tell the Captain he can’t just skip out on his duties to go gallivanting across the globe._ He angrily typed back.

 _I’m sure Steve’s got plenty of vacation time,_ Iron Man replied. _Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone walk off with that glorious ass. Either of them._ A string of photos of Steve’s and Barnes’s asses in wet swim trunks began popping up.

He handed the phone back to the agent in disgust. “Very well then. Any updates on the files Stark stole?”

The agent shook their head. “Not yet, Sir. We just keep finding more and more files that have his fingerprints on them. We’re no longer sure that was even the first file he took.”

Fury gnashed his teeth.

 

…

 

The Captain didn’t exactly hurry back.

Fury liked to think that he had already seen the worst things the spying business could throw at him, that no matter how fantastically a mission started to nosedive, it wouldn't be as bad as those few times when things hadn't just nosedived, they'd death spiraled straight to Hell. 

There was the time Barton had been sent to take down the notoriously ruthless assassin Black Widow, only to show up on SHIELD's doorstep with Widow very much alive, asking if Fury could give her a job. _The woman had still been armed, for Christ sakes_. At least Steve hadn't brought them to SHIELD headquarters yet. 

This wasn't quite like those times, but the fallout had the potential to be just as bad. 

The three of them were just sitting there, sipping sodas and waiting for their cheeseburgers. As though all was right with the world. The Captain hadn't even bothered to change out of his uniform, Iron Man couldn't be more visible if he tried, and the Winter Soldier was making no attempt to hide his left arm. Reporters were flashing picture after picture, and a few dozen of the braver ones had actually approached the trio to get statements. Fury had been told that once upon a time, reporters had respected the wishes of high-level government security agencies, but he couldn't quite find it in himself to believe it. For some reason, the Captain thought it was perfectly okay to actually give those bloodsucking nuisances what they asked for! 

It was going to be a PR disaster, he just knew it. Articles about the Captain's statements were already trending, and their food was just now arriving.   
Fury clenched his fists and tried not to scare the agent driving the car as he watched the disaster play out on the screen in front of him. He'd set out as soon as he heard the bad news in the futile hope that he could head off this disaster before things went too pear-shaped. 

"Captain Rogers, you've gone on record before saying that Iron Man should not be labeled a criminal. Does this sentiment extend to the Winter Soldier, a legendary assassin, as well?"

And dammit if the Captain didn't launch into an explanation about HYDRA and brainwashing and the classified files and everything that he wasn't supposed to be talking about.

Milkshakes arrived, and Iron Man stuck the straw of one under his faceplate. Fury felt his blood pressure creep upwards. He’d be having _words_ with the Captain later.

 

…

 

Fury stormed down the corridors of one of SHIELD’s lesser outposts, already mentally preparing just how he was going to rip the Captain a new one for pulling this bullshit. Bringing the both Iron Man _and_ Winter Soldier here? There were _endless_ ways the two of them could cause a national security disaster. If he was truthful with himself, though, it wasn’t a complete. For all that this had been terrible judgement on the Captain’s part, at least he now had the opportunity to observe two entities that had managed thus far to elude SHIELD’s spies. Steve had also brought them to a relatively unused SHIELD base, away from most anything important.

He rounded a corner and just barely spotted a junior agent diving into a dark room. They must be getting better if they knew to get out of his way before he even showed up. That or Phil had warned them. That was probably it.

The door to the Captain’s temporary quarters was shut, and a handmade sign hung from the door handle asking that any visitors ‘please come back later!’ Cute. SHIELD quarters didn’t come with locks for obvious reasons, so sign or no the Captain was going to have to deal with the mess he’d made. Bringing two known enemies to a SHIELD base without so much as a by-your-leave? What was the man thinking? He grabbed the handle and yanked it open as forcefully as he could.

The door flew out of his hand and slammed against the wall with a satisfying _bang_ , and the breeze from the slam made his coat flap dramatically. His perfect entrance, however, appeared to have been for nothing. The Captain wasn’t in his quarters.

It took him another split second to realize that someone else _was_.

The Winter Soldier stood in the shadows near the closet, in full battle gear. His metal arm gleamed dully in the light spilling in from the hallway. He stared at Fury, but didn’t so much as move a muscle.

Slowly, Fury backed out of the room and shut the door again.

Somewhere behind him, he heard footsteps, but he didn’t turn to look until he felt someone tap his shoulder. Slowly, he turned around.

The Captain looked sheepish. “I can explain?”

“Really? You can explain how you brought armed enemies of SHIELD into a secure building, then left them unattended in your room?”

The man had the decency to look uncomfortable.

“About that, Sir. I think you should see this.” He paused, then fished a flash drive shaped like a miniature Iron Man out of his pocket. Fury didn’t even bat an eyelash as he palmed it with a sense of impending doom. Whatever was on that drive, it wasn’t good.

“Oh, and before I forget,” Steve continued, now digging through his backpack. “Iron Man said he promised you a souvenir.” He handed Fury a truly hideous tropical themed snow globe. A little Iron Man figurine was hula dancing while a plastic Winter Soldier roasted shish kebabs on it’s hot metal arm. A little plastic Captain America reclined on a beach chair with a book Fury recognised from the dreaded list he’d given the Captain when he’d first kidnapped him.

The only thing that kept him from dashing the thing against the wall was Steve’s and Barnes’s matching smirks. He couldn’t give them the satisfaction. Instead he turned and paced off to see what was on the flash drive.

“Keep an eye on your pet assassin, Captain,” he threw over his shoulder as he retreated. “Don’t leave him unattended like that again.”

…

 

Fucking HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD.

Well, that answered some of his questions. It seems those scientists weren’t looking for Steve so much as they were trying to track down HYDRA’s pet assassin, who just so happened to be Steve’s old war buddy come back from the dead. Still didn’t explain how Stark fit into the picture, but it was good to know that the Captain wasn’t in imminent danger of being kidnapped.

He’d thought it was odd that that footage had never been brought to his attention before. But if there were people inside SHIELD itself who worked for the same people as those scientists, then it made sense. A lot of strange stuff was starting to make sense, actually.

It also explained why Steve was so reluctant to return to headquarters. The place was literally crawling with the very people that had brainwashed Barnes in the first place.

…

 

What a strange new world it was. Trusted agents were HYDRA spies, Bucky Barnes was a super soldier now, and Fury was actually glad to see Steve out on public outings with Iron Man and Barnes. The three of them had enough star power to distract the media from SHIELD’s tailspin, so they had had a lot of outings lately. Fury had just assigned someone to monitor the stories while he dealt with the members of HYDRA that had apparently been working under his nose this whole time.

Now that SHIELD was as clean as he could get it, he eyed the mountain of news stories, tabloids, photos and commentary from the agent on the ones that needed more context.

He settled down and began to read.

Immediately his headache began to return with a vengeance. The Captain had been busy while Fury wasn’t looking. Though it was probably his own fault for redirecting everything that wasn’t directly related to taking down HYDRA to his most trusted agents rather than listening to it himself.

Right off the bat were the articles claiming Captain America had been kidnapped by the Winter Soldier. Fury was almost impressed; he hadn’t seen fear mongering this blatant and _universal_ since the end of the Cold War. There wasn’t a single news outlet that didn’t seem absolutely convinced that the Winter Soldier had merely been biding his time before, and that now that he’d gotten his claws into the good Captain he was holding him hostage in plain sight. Those got cleared up quickly enough; Steve wasn’t just going to let that sort of slander stand.

Then there were the PR articles, where Steve apparently gave an interview to every journal that would listen about Bucky’s innocence and Iron Man’s moral rectitude. With Captain America’s glowing recommendation, the media had quickly changed it’s tone with those two. Where previously they’d been a ‘villain’ and an ‘assassin,’ now they were a ‘hero taking on the horrors of the military-industrial complex’ and a ‘ brave POW finally returned home.’ Looks like he’d have to put up with those two more than he’d like. The media might not be calling them criminals anymore, but Fury wasn’t quite ready to trust either of them just yet.

Next he found that somehow in the mass emptying of SHIELD’s barracks as more and more agents were found to be HYDRA, he’d missed that Steve had moved out. No one had challenged him when he’d submitted the paperwork; of course not, who would challenge Captain America after he’d just handed HYDRA’s little scheme to Fury on a platter? So now he didn’t even know where the man was. He’d have to work on getting him back to SHIELD as soon as possible. Steve Rogers was still a secret identity, so he could probably put some pressure on the landlord of whatever apartment he’d found to make this little problem go away without drawing too much suspicion. It wouldn’t be the first time SHIELD had used housing to get someone where they wanted them.

Next were the stack of articles on Steve’s public coming-out. He didn’t even bother to read those. There probably wouldn’t be anything interesting there, just the usual claptrap that got published every time someone famous took the plunge. The only real piece of news was probably what had prompted such an announcement, and Fury was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any surprises there. If the Captain’s reception of Iron Man’s flowers and the texts Coulson had seen at that conference all that time ago were anything to go by, this little romance was a long time coming. He wondered how that would work now that Barnes was back. If the preliminary reports were anything to go by, Barnes might not even remember his and Steve's romantic history.

Last of all was a note from the Captain himself.

_Director,_

_You seemed busy, so I figured I’d write to you personally and tell you that I’ve decided to move in with Iron Man. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I don’t think staying with SHIELD was very good for me. It’s partly my own fault - I didn’t want to make a new life in this century, I wanted my old life back. Iron Man’s been helping me move on, and I’ve decided that the first step to really doing that is to have a proper home._

_Bucky agreed with me, so if you’ve already made accommodations for him, you should give them to someone else._

How funny that the Captain honestly thought SHIELD would put Barnes anywhere but in a cell with 24 hour surveillance. He might have Steve fooled, but Fury had spent too much time working with Super Spies to have the wool pulled over _his_ eyes. Barnes wasn’t working for HYDRA anymore, but that didn’t mean he was all there either.

_Iron Man has offered his home to us, and we’ve accepted. I know you don’t see the good in him yet Director, but he’s been my greatest friend in this century. Well, maybe friend isn’t the word I’m looking for, but you get the point._

_Of course I’ll still work with SHIELD once this mess with HYDRA has been cleared up and Bucky’s feeling a little more himself._

_See you,_

_Steve._

 

…

 

Of course Fury didn’t just accept that the Captain had moved out. If he was living with Iron Man then he probably wouldn’t be able to pressure the landlord into evicting Steve, but he could still have an agent tail him.

Romanoff tailed him to the front door of Stark Tower before Barnes intercepted her.

Fury didn’t even know why he was surprised that Tony Stark was Iron Man. He should have seen it a mile away. The tech, the fact that he was cleaning up his black market weapons mess and shutting down production, the file he’d stolen, his indifference to the challenge of recreating Iron Man- all of the clues were there.

The surprise was mostly overshadowed by the tidal wave of despair. He was going to be seeing a lot more of Stark, seeing as the Captain and Barnes were living with him now.

He’d have to tell Phil to print out anything too important and destroy the digital evidence. Nothing on a computer would be safe.

Fury kept an eye on the three of them and waited until the Captain was alone and outside of the Tower to ambush him. It took a few days, but eventually the Captain went to the park by himself.

It was a nice day out; he could see why the Captain was intent on enjoying it. Central Park was full of joggers, dog walkers and kids running every which way. Steve was seated on a wooden bench just off the path, reading. He had a tupperware container of something next to him, unopened.

He slipped a bookmark into his book when Fury sat next to him on the park bench.

“Another Iron Man rec?”

Steve smiled. “Yep. Not exactly history, but it’s been real helpful so far.”

Fury glanced at the title. _The Ethical Slut._ His eyebrows rose.

“Is that how you plan to deal with Barnes coming back?”

Steve blushes. “Yeah, I was kind of having a crisis, at first, but he was so helpful. He talked me through everything, and gave me so much information to work with. He really is a better man than you think, Sir.”

“Seems like you’ve got a pretty good handle on the future, then.”

For the first time since he was defrosted, Steve looks utterly content. “I think I just might, Sir.”


End file.
